Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a food serving tray, and more particularly to a serving tray that will sustain fresh-baked pizza or bread or other hot-served food items in a hot and crispy state for consumption.
Description of Related Art
Many food items are served immediately after baking for consumption. Examples include loaf bread, bread sticks and rolls, quiche, pies, and other crust-type items. Pizza is another example and will serve hereinafter as a convenient representative example for all types of hot baked food items that have a crust. As is commonly-known, pizza is a baked compilation of flat bread topped with sauce, cheese and (usually) various meats and vegetables. Many restaurants specialize in serving house-baked pizza. A pizza restaurant will gain a highly coveted favorable reputation when pizza is made to order using high-quality, fresh ingredients and served hot (from the oven) with a crispy crust. Any restaurant is capable of using high-quality, fresh ingredients, but consistently achieving an ideal crispy crust is very difficult. An ideal crispy crust on every pizza served to hundreds of customers every week demands skilled preparation, and proper execution of the baking process.
More and more restaurants are gaining popularity as sit-down dining destinations by specializing in so-called “gourmet” pizza. Such higher-end restaurants therefore strive to cook and serve pizza of exceptionally high quality on a consistent basis. Even if a restaurant is able to consistently serve excellent tasting, hot pizza with a perfectly crispy crust, commercial success will not be certain unless the dining ambiance is favorable. Dining ambiance includes not only décor and atmosphere, but also the quality of the prepared food must be sustained long after serving so that the patron has time to delight in a leisurely eating experience. That is to say, if a pizza is served perfectly tasting and hot and crispy to a patron but the taste, temperature and/or texture of the food deteriorates too rapidly, the patron is not likely to consider the overall experience enjoyable. There is therefore a need to make great food, and also to prepare and serve the food in such a way that it can be savored in its original high-quality state for a reasonable period of unhurried dining time. Toward this end, it has proven extremely difficult to sustain the hot and crispy character of a perfectly prepared pizza for more than a few brief and fleeting moments.
In a sit-down pizzeria restaurant, immediately after a pizza is baked it is typically sliced into pieces and then placed on an un-perforated circular metal serving tray for presentation to the patron. An example of a traditional solid serving tray is shown in FIG. 1. The tray is sometimes placed on an elevated stand as shown. When served on this type of traditional solid tray, the pizza crust will quickly lose its initial crispness and become unpleasantly soggy. Soggy crust results largely from water vapors emanating from the bottom of freshly baked crust and forming condensation. The trapped moisture between the crust bottom and the tray is re-absorbed by the crust turning it soggy. Soggy crust is undesirable to eat. Soggy crust is also undesirable to handle by patrons that eat pizza in the traditional manner without silverware.
There also exists in the prior art a device known as a pizza screen (not shown). A pizza screen is circular like a pizza and used typically as a supporting under-layer during the baking process. A pizza screen is not used as a serving utensil for the finished pizza. The pizza screen is characterized by an expanded metal mesh which allows the hot oven air to circulate around the crust bottom, supposedly cooking it more evenly. If someone tried to use a pizza screen for serving purposes, the results would be predictably undesirable. A pizza screen placed directly on a solid surface, like a dining table, would result in the crust rapidly turning soggy in the same manner as described above with a traditional solid serving tray. On the other hand, a pizza screen placed on an elevated stand like that shown in FIG. 1, would result in the crust rapidly cooling as the underside of the pizza would be exposed to open air flow.
US 2004/0234653 to Cogley, published Nov. 25, 2004, discloses a frozen pizza packing tray that can be used upside-down to microwave cook a pizza. Holes in the tray platform pass steam generated by the pizza during cooking. The steam becomes trapped underneath the platform and is deemed useful to the cooking process. In some embodiments, side vent apertures control venting of the steam. The Cogley device is not intended for serving pizza. The device is manufactured from paper-based, disposable microwaveable materials without additional support of the platform and therefore the top surface is structurally insufficient for cutting pizza. The top surface of the device includes only a limited number of widely-spaced apertures for the steam to move through, too few to prevent trapped moisture. If a user attempted to use the tray for serving, numerous shortcomings would become evident. The crust would quickly become soggy due to the minimal and widely-spaced apertures in its platform and the moisture-absorbing nature of the material. The weak material could soften and soon fail under the weight of the pizza and normal human interactions. The crust would quickly become cold after the first slice of pizza is removed, as heat would escape from the entire area under the platform and also would be immediately exposed to air drafts.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,785,968 to Logan et al., issued Nov. 22, 1988, discloses a double-wall pizza serving platter configured for serving hot pizza pan without damaging a dining table. The hot pizza rests directly on a perforate platform that is suspended above a solid base by a plurality of circumferentially spaced radial ribs. Steam and heat released from a hot pizza passes through the perforated platform then immediately escapes through the space between the ribs. A user attempting to use the Logan device to serve hot pizza would be disappointed in its performance for a few reasons. The open double-wall design provides a direct pathway for heat released from the hot pizza to escape to the outside and cool drafts to move in below the pizza. As slices of pizza are removed from the pan, larger and larger air pathways are created allowing for the accelerated escape of heat. Consequently, a pizza served on the Logan devise quickly cools. Moreover, the close-spacing between the platform and base may tend to condense steam emitted from the crust as liquid water in close proximity to the platform thereby inviting resorption of water back into crust. Thus, a patron served pizza on the Logan device is likely to experience a rapidly cooled pizza with an increasingly soggy crust.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,434 to Hoffman, Jr., issued Dec. 31, 1991, teaches a stackable ventilated support tray for storing and shipping uncooked pizza dough shells. The tray has a perforated platform surrounded by a rim. Spacer pins and stabilizers are provided so that when stacked, the rim and platform of one tray is well-supported above a like tray below. The area below the pizza receiving platform of the tray is intentionally designed for ventilation to flow underneath the uncooked pizza dough in an attempt to keep it fresh. The Hoffman device is not intended for use to cook pizza or to serve a cooked pizza.
There is therefore a need for a hot baked food serving solution that permits an expertly prepared food item, such as pizza, to remain hot and crispy for the duration of an unhurried meal so that a patron's dining experience will be maximized.